Stan’s Corner, Monday, August 1

I am reading a biography of Ulysses S. Grant and found this description very fascinating:

“Chimney smoke rose in wavering spirals that were white against the dark forest that ringed the Ohio frontier village.  Small windows in the log cabins or the little frame houses began to glow as women inside, raked ashes off chunks that had smoldered in the fireplace all night, and threw on enough chips to start a blaze.  In houses too poor to afford candles, the women, holding shawls around their shoulders with one hand, touched long splinters to the fire and carried the little flame to the kitchen table where rags, floating in dishes of oil, began to burn.”  Capt. Sam Grant, p. 3